{"id":29259,"date":"2021-05-06T23:53:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T03:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29259"},"modified":"2021-05-06T23:53:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T03:53:14","slug":"location-of-diversity-mural-still-up-for-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/location-of-diversity-mural-still-up-for-consideration\/","title":{"rendered":"Location of diversity mural still up for consideration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The future of Aurora\u2019s Diversity Mural could be in the hands of interested artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week considered the final location of the Diversity Mural. Going into the meeting, lawmakers were faced with a recommendation to sign off on the building at the southwest corner of Yonge and Wellington as the final location for art celebrating the community\u2019s diversity, but concerns over the number of windows boasted by the wall in question, as well as some Councillors feeling left out of the process, resulted in a decision to allow interested artists to make their pitch on any of four mural locations shortlisted by staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These potential locations, in addition to Yonge and Wellington, include a wall of a professional office building just south of the intersection that is most prominently the offices of realtor Lenard Lind, a north-facing wall of the Aurora Public Library, and a retaining wall near Hartwell Way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do think there is some discussion that has to be had on these locations before jumping into it,\u201d said Councillor Rachel Gilliland, who has been a critic of the process. \u201cThe perfect spot is there [but] I just don\u2019t know if it is the one that has been pre-selected as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar views were offered by Councillor John Gallo, another Council member who has criticized the process, who said he felt the mural was being rushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese types of things take time, effort and thought and they don\u2019t go away,\u201d he said, noting his preference to hold off on a final decision until the drafting of a Town-wide public art policy is developed. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re putting the cart before the horse. We\u2019re developing a policy that would dictate how these things are executed: criteria on selection, a site that is going to remain for a long time, perhaps a municipal site, something that is not going to be potentially redeveloped. I don\u2019t think we can say that for the site that staff is recommending. I support the initiative but I support doing it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Councillor Wendy Gartner said the Diversity Mural \u201cneeded to be done,\u201d she had reservations about the site preferred by staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are way too many windows on that other location; it would be just too hard to work with,\u201d she said, conceding that Yonge and Wellington is \u201cthe best location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis needs to be great and it needs to last for a long time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to get it right the first time. It\u2019s not trying to put aside or not honour the subject matter. It\u2019s just that it\u2019s such an important subject matter\u2026it needs to be as perfect as it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A motion to let interested artists decide which \u201ccanvas\u201d they want as part of their vision was put forward by Councillor Michael Thompson. All four spaces, he said, are different shapes and sizes \u201cand would lend themselves to a different end product to some degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Diversity Mural project is being led by Phil Rose, who also serves as Project Manager for the Library Square development. He said it would not be a problem to let the artists make pitches on the locations of their choice and could spur a \u201cconversation\u201d in the artistic community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps this is a way for all members of Council to get behind and support it,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cLet the artists decide where to put the mural in terms of their vision and what they want to do. To me, that might be a way to move forward with this and to continue the momentum without any further delays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion to allow artists to submit proposals for the location of their choice was approved unanimously by Council. However, when the amended motion came forward for a final vote, Councillor Gilliland was the lone vote against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future of Aurora\u2019s Diversity Mural could be in the hands of interested artists. Council last week considered the final location of the Diversity Mural. Going into the meeting, lawmakers were faced with a recommendation to sign off on the building at the southwest corner of Yonge and Wellington as the final location for art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/2021-05-06-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7BV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-26 02:13:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}